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Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins (WWE Raw Tag Team Championship)
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Predictions & Winners: So we got our lil’ Shield reunion with Ambrose and Rollins minus Reigns. I have to hand it to the creatives behind this whole ordeal since they’ve stuck to the timeless art of the “slow burn.” Ambrose got screwed over hard by his former running buddy and he was far from trusting of the man who used to be the focal point of The Authority. Rollins knows he did his former stable mate wrong, which is why it took weeks for both men to finally agree to team up once again. Their opponents are the individuals who’ve been revived via a strong tag team championship run – Cesaro and Sheamus. For some reason, I sense a swerve coming our way from this match. Ambrose has been a face for a while now, but it’s about time for him to change up his style and re-embrace his maniacal “Jon Moxley” lifestyle. Rollins’ babyface run has been lacking and one of the reasons for that is him not having a good heel to work with. Ambrose will now become his most hated rival, which will evoke memories of the hateful feelings Ambrose harbored against a heel Rollins. Near the close of this bout, Rollins will look like he’ll have the match won…until Ambrose flips him around and plants him with a Dirty Deeds. Ambrose will shock the world (not me) and walk off while Rollins eats the decisive pin that’ll keep Cesaro and Sheamus as champions. Ambrose has every reason in the world to turn on Rollins, which will make this blood feud a lot more nuanced and interesting.
“The Demon” Finn Bálor vs. Bray Wyatt
Update: so Bray soundly defeated Balor on the last episode of Raw before SummerSlam. Balor went ahead and promised that he’ll be bringing back his more demonic alter ego. There’s no way he’ll drop another loss to Bray, especially now that I know Balor’s gonna go on a body art rampage.
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Predictions & Winner: “The Eater of Worlds” has set his sights on “The Demon.” This would have been a more exciting prospect had both men hadn’t gotten so cold lately. Bray’s lost a lot of his luster ever since being moved to Raw and Balor’s had a hard time regaining the hot streak and fan adoration he garnered before his shoulder injury. Both men have reached into their bag of dark promos in order to properly psyche each other out. I can see Bray getting extra creepy once he finally locks up with Bálor. And watching Bálor unveil his demonic face/body paint for this supernatural encounter is a safe bet. I think Balor’s going to go 2-0 at SummerSlam with a win over the guy who’s double entendre promos have no effect on anyone whatsoever anymore.
The New Day (Big E and/or Xavier Woods and/or Kofi Kingston) (c) vs. The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso) (WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship)
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Predictions & Winners: After the amazing contest this group of talent put on at Battleground, count me all the way in for this rematch. The Usos have been out for blood ever since the SmackDown Live tag straps were taken from them. They have no time for all the happy go-lucky shenanigans and celebratory title celebrations of their rivals. As for the new tag team champions, The New Day is riding high and ready to beat back the threat of The Usos once again. Their title reign seems to be something that will go just as long as the reign they enjoyed while on Raw. Which lets me know that The New Day are going to become the victors after another high octane bout at the Barclays. This feud won’t come to a close, though. There just aren’t a whole lot of teams that can present an actual threat to The New Day at this point…
AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens (WWE United States Championship Match with Shane McMahon as the Special Guest Referee)
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Predictions & Winner: The United States Championship is enjoying a nice lil’ hot streak right now. The two men responsible for turning that title into the top prize on the Blue Brand are AJ Styles and Kevin Owens. Styles claimed the championship during a MSG House Show, Owens got it right back at Battleground then Styles reclaimed it on the following episode of SD Live. All that madness has led up to Owens losing a rematch that was mired in controversy.
So now Styles vs. Owens is going down again and this time, Shane O’ Mac is the one who’ll be donning the referee duds. I was hoping this match would have been turned into a Ladder Match to lessen the chances of this match ending via a screwy finish, but oh well. As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m expecting here. Somehow someway, Styles will end up retaining the US Championship over Owens. Owens will have all the reason in the world to be even more pissed at Shane when he makes the 3-count after something Owens deems unfair happens to him.
Jinder Mahal (c) (with Sunil Singh and Samir Singh) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE Championship)
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Predictions & Winner: I. Am. Shocked! As someone who’s been doing this wrestling prediction thing for a couple years now, my gut told me that WWE was going to go all patriotic again. I wanted no parts of Mahal vs. Cena, but that seemed like the most expected move to make for SD Live’s marquee match. Then the most shocking result of all took place – Shinsuke Nakamura faced John Cena for the very first time and ended up beating him! Whoa…I couldn’t have predicted that going down.
So there you have it, folks – Jinder Mahal’s next title challenger is Shinsuke Nakamura. India vs. Japan. “The Modern Day Maharaja” vs. “The Artist.” Mahal’s beaten back Orton on three separate occasions and he now has the added muscle of The Great Khali backing him up. So the odds are definitely stacked against Nakamura. I think Nakamura might actually pull a good to great match out of Jinder, which will end up being one of the biggest shockers of the evening. Nakamura will be on the verge of defeating Jinder several times throughout this bout and have the crowd biting on every near fall. But I still foresee Mahal being the man leaving with the WWE Championship around his waist. Mahal’s mini-army will help him keep his hold on the title for just a little bit longer.
Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman (Fatal 4-Way Match for the WWE Universal Championship)
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Predictions & Winner: I’M SO HYPED FOR THIS! While Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar wasn’t as incredible as it turned out to be, I’m still excited at the prospect of seeing them meeting each other in the ring again. But this time, two more beasts will join them in the Lion’s Den – Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. What makes this match all the more interesting is the threat from Lesnar’s advocate. Heyman’s made it clear that if Lesnar loses his grip around the Universal Championship, they’ll both walk away from WWE. This announcement falls right around the time where rumors of Lesnar returning to the UFC are running rampant (Jon Jones called him out, plus there were rumors of Lesnar going back into USADA testing). So I’m sure whoever’s reading this right now thinks there’s a slight chance that this match may provide an out for Lesnar so he can head back to the world of MMA.
The three men that present the greatest threat to Lesnar will all be in the ring at the same time. It’s pretty plausible that Strowman will be the main one targeted by the other three competitors since he’s damn near unstoppable. Joe and Reigns will be sent to Suplex City repeatedly by Lesnar at various points, but I’m guessing both those men will do their best to weaken the champ. When Strowman awakes from his beatdown, he’ll tear into all three challengers with reckless abandon. This is the type of main event that’s a car crash in the best way possible. Here’s the thing – Lesnar’s held the title since April. He’s had a good run and it seems like Lesnar’s weird schedule is beginning to annoy a lot of fans. If Lesnar’s really ready to leave, then now’s the perfect time to do so and drop the title to another juggernaut. There’s three other killers in this match who deserve the title, but Samoa Joe will be the one to do it. It makes the most sense for him to finally lay claim to the championship since he’s been on Lesnar’s heels the most. “The Samoan Submission Machine” will get the ultimate rub when he finally chokes out Lesnar and become’s Raw biggest dog in the yard (sorry, Roman!).
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WWE SummerSlam 2017: Matches & Predictions